<論説>明治後半期の渡米熱 : アメリカの流行

Abstract

明治三〇年代半ばから明治四〇年代にかけて、多くの人々が渡米に関心をもち、実際に渡米していった。渡米を奨励する数多くの本が出版され、渡米協会・力行会といった渡米奨励団体も活況を呈し、新聞・雑誌でも渡米情報がかなり掲載されていた。移民の最適地アメリカ、渡米すれば稼げて学べて洋行帰りとなれる、といったイメージが語られ、人々の関心をひいたのである。そして、当時のいわゆる成功ブームのなかで、カーネギー・ルーズベルトがヒーローとしてもてはやされ、実力次第の機会と成功の社会アメリカといったイメージも、大量にふりまかれていた。こういつた渡米論やアメリカのイメージには、日本の社会情況への満たされぬ思いや息苦しさが倒錯されていた。さらに、この渡米論やアメリカのイメージを別の角度からみれば、日本人のアメリカに対する劣等感や屈辱感、そして反発が、そこには封じこめられていた。これらを露出させることになったのが、日露戦争後の日本人排斥運動・黄禍論の台頭だったのである。

From the latter half of the thirties to the forties of Meiji Era, many Japanese were interested in going abroad to America and many of them actually did so. A variety of books and leaflets were published to encourage their going to America, organizations promoting the trend such as Tobei-kyokai (渡米協会) or Rikiko-kai (力行会) were getting more active than ever and a considerable amount of information concerning America was on newspapers, and magazines. Such palatable phrases as "America ; the best country for emigrants!" or "there you can surely make money and study and would be called Yokogaeri (a prestigious title given to a returnee from the West)" were repeatedly on the lips of the people and attracted their attention. In the influx of success stories at that time, they made a hero of Roosebelt or Carnegie and the image of America as the land of equal opportunity, where anyone can hold success by means of his merits and abilities, prevailed. But the favorable image of America and the American Fever reflected in a perverted way the flustration felt by Japanese and the oppresive and stifling atmosphere of the Japanese society. From another point of view, it can be said that a sense of inferiority, humiliation and covert resentment against America were sealed up in the American Fever. It was the rise of the Anti-Japanese-Movement and the Yellow Peril after the Russo-Japanese War that disclosed the back side of the American Fever in Japan.